The family of a 77-year-old Austrian hiker missing since Sept. 4 and volunteers searching a treacherous hunting trail made even more hazardous by raining weather are keeping a positive attitude.

"We're positive but also realistic," Meryl Robertson, one of Jon Parsons' daughters, told The Advertiser today.

Robertson said her father is a Christian and "as a family, we trust God and know he's safe with God."

Family members here from Australia include Robertson, her sister and their husbands, and two brothers. They have been searching daily but rested today.

About 15 volunteers braved slippery conditions and continued the search for Parsons on the east side of the Waimalu Ditch Trail in upper Pearl Ridge. Volunteers will resume searching tomorrow, said Mabel Kekina of the Hawaiian Trail & Mountain Climbing Club.

"There's still hope because there's lots of fruit — guava and lilikoi (passion fruit) — and pockets of (drinking) water since it's been raining," Kekina said.

Kekina said the volunteer effort has covered the ridge above Onikiniki Place to the valley floor.

Parsons is a retired builder from Bendigo in central Victoria, Australia, north of Melbourne. He is an experienced and adventurous hiker with the know-how to survive an ordeal such as this in the brush, his daughter said.

Parsons has hiked the Himalayas, Robertson added.

"He loves to hike and get out in the brush," Robertson said.